Travel Photo of the Day 01-11-2013

Our Savior Church – Copenhagen , Denmark

The Church of Our Savior (Vor Frelsers Kirke) is a baroque church in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen. The church is most famous for its corkscrew spire with an external winding staircase that can be climbed to the top. Which of course meant that I had to climb it to see the great views of central Copenhagen. In 1617 King Christian IV planned Christianshavn, which was intended as an independent merchant’s town on the island of Amager and therefore needed a church. A temporary church was inaugurated in 1639. However the present Church of Our Savior construction did not start until 1682 and was inaugurated 14 years later in 1695. The church is built in a Dutch baroque style and its basic layout is a Greek cross. The black and golden spire reaches a height of 295 feet and the external staircase turns four times counter-clockwise around it. It is a timber-framed structure which is octagonal at its base, with round-arched openings and round windows with gilded frames. The octagonal structure is topped by a small platform with a gilded railing, and it is from this point that the staircase become external. There is a total number of 400 steps to the top of the spire, the last 150 being outside.